A blog devoted to my interests which include anarchism and social movements, history, archeology, and anything else I choose to write about.

Monday, November 30, 2009

Ideology As a Form of Madness

A person is deemed insane if they are delusional, that is if what they believe has no connection whatsoever with the real world around them. An important contemporary form of delusion is the pseudo-science of economics, most especially its neo-classical form, dominant these last three decades.

The latest Monthly Review in an article titled “The Paradox of Wealth and Environmental Destruction” has a number of quotes which show just what raving nut cases these “economists” are.

Oxford “economist” Wilfred Beckerman in his book Small Is Stupid (who is stupid?) claimed that if US agricultural output fell 50% it wouldn't mean very much since it only represents 1.5% of the US GDP. Hence global warming wouldn't have much of an effect.

Thomas Schelling a Nobel prize winning “economist” wrote along similar lines- Agriculture is practically the only sector of the economy affected by climate and it only contributes a small percentage ... of national income. If agricultural productivity were drastically reduced by climate change, the cost of living would rise by one or two percent, and at a time when per capital income will have doubled.

It never occurred to these idiots that if you decreased the food supply by 50% prices of food would shoot way up and millions of the most vulnerable would starve.

Not sure if Mises counts as classical economics or just Austrian economics, but a Libertarian classical liberal could have told them supply n demand does matter for economic success/well being. If this be neo-classicalism....